100 Drabbles Challenge
by Vipaka
Summary: 100 glimpses into the three lifetimes of arguably the most famous romantic pairing in any anime. Usa/Mamo
1. Chapter 1

The sky was overstuffed with glittering stars. The Tokyo tower glowed faintly in the distance, the city lights a yellow blur below.

"Tell me again, why am I here?" Usagi pulled Mamoru's jacket tighter around her petite frame. It was midnight in the dead of winter, and just above freezing as Mamoru tinkered with the telescope on his apartment's patio.

"Do you remember last month when you--" he shifted his weight, and his word choice,"were upset over missing the meteor shower?" He moved the dails on the machine with practiced ease.

Usagi couldn't help the chattering of her teeth even though the warmth of his apartment was only a few feet behind her. "No."

Seeing that she wasn't taking the bait, he began the goading, "and then you pouted and sulked all the way to the movie theatre, and when we got inside..."

"Okay, okay! I remember-rr-r." Usagi entertained herself for a moment watching her breath on the air while Mamoru adjusted the eyepiece. A look of dawning realization spread across her face. "You decided you'd get revenge by waking me up in the middle of the night and locking me out here in the cold, didn't you?" She pushed a finger into his arm. Taking a nervous step closer to the screen door, she lunged for the handle. "Well that's not gonna happen!"

Mamoru laughed, snagging a streamer of her hair before she could escape inside. "Tempted as I might have been a month ago to drag you out of that theatre and bring you back here for some punishment..." He tugged the pigtail before releasing it. "Rewards are far more effective than spankings."

Usagi huffed, watching again as her breath appeared and faded like smoke. "It is WAY too cold, and I am way too tired to be doing *that* out here, right now. Besides, we already crossed public places off our top 100 list." Wrapping an arm around her waist, Mamoru pulled her up beside him.

"I have something else in mind. Just look," He pointed to the eyepiece of the telescope.

Curiosity piqued, Usagi leaned in to peer through the lens before yanking her head back. "COLD! Coooollld" Mamoru nursed his wounded shoulder while Usagi continued to howl loud enough he began to worry about noise complaints from the neighbors.

Leaning down he kissed her eyelid before pointing back to the telescope. "Just trust me, take a peek and afterwards we will go back inside and I will make you some hot cocoa."

Usagi held herself back from an unladylike snort. "You, in the kitchen? Not after last time." Nevertheless, she pressed her face back up against the telescope, this time repressing her instinct to jump away from the chill. It took a few seconds for her to focus on what she was seeing through the small hole.

Her mouth parted in surprise, and she let out a small noise of awe. "Its beautiful..." Mamoru's chest swelled with pride as she continued to watch the comet. His success was short lived.

"Is that Krypton?" she breathed in awe. Sweatdropping, Mamoru wrapped his arms around her waist.

He didn't remark when she wriggled closer to his body warmth without moving her head from the telescope. "Its Halley's comet, a once in a lifetime sight."

"Maybe not anymore, since we're y'know, going to start the Crystal Millennium and all." Mamoru marvelled as Usagi made her typical intellectual leap from a comic book reference to a deep insight.

"Maybe not," he smiled, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. His tone became pensive, "I guess I wouldn't mind seeing it again someday with you."

Usagi pulled away from the telescope with a sly smile. "Don't lie," she twisted in his arms to face him. "You'd enjoy that immensely."

Mamoru just smiled. 


	2. Chapter 2

She stared at the letters, willing them to vanish. If she focused enough energy into it, it was quite possible they might. But she was in no condition to concentrate as the first tear deserted her eye.

Before her laid the collection of his love letters to her, ranging from scribbles on post-it notes to their wedding vows. She picked up the most recent letter with trembling hands, forcing herself to read it again.

Dear Usako,

I'm sorry I could not deliver this letter to you myself, but with the war it would be incorrigible for me to demand an audience with the one person who is preventing this planet from being consumed by chaos.

I've loved you through the lifetimes, and I have no regrets. You have filled my soul with purpose and love that it would have otherwise never known. I am eternally grateful to you, and I know that someday we will be reunited. Please believe that.

I do not know if you will even survive to read this, but I wish you would not, if only to spare you the the inevitable pain. I can already feel myself fading, much as the others did. I am devoting my last few moments to writing you this letter, as I have spent the last few years protecting our daughter instead of aiding you as I longed to. Small Lady Serenity is still alive, and I have instructed her to seek refuge in the past, I can only hope things have not gotten this bad there as well. I will infuse my spirit with yours as your senshi have, until this hell ends...if it ever does.

Your strength is boundless, you will defeat this foe. Do not despair for us, we chose our path and that path has always been by your side.

I will always love you, Mamoru

The holographic letters blinked into nothingness as she braced herself on the wall, sobs bubbling up from her throat. Her knight had been the last to fall, but his demise was the greatest wound. Whriling in a flash of white fabric, she ran down the hallway towards the mausoleum. Her crown clattered to the floor as she ran, but she did not notice or care.

Arriving at her destination, she slowed to brace herself against the imminent tragedy. She caressed a pale hand over the crystalline prisons her friends were encased in, one by one. In the center of the room, in another such case, her husband's lifeless body lay.

Stepping towards it she closed her eyes against the sight. The royal lilac garments he wore were more vibrant than his skin, and his once luscious mane was limp and haggard. His eyes had large bags underneath them from years of tireless effort, but their color was hidden from her view. For a horrific moment, she knew that she might never see them again.

Wrapping her arms around the invisible barrier separating her soul from the oblivion of his, she wept. 


	3. Chapter 3

The fireflies were dwindling in number, but the cicadas were just beginning to chirp as Usagi strolled through Juuban park. It wasn't quite dark enough to be dangerous, but the night was creeping in. Distracted by the lake, Usagi crashed directly into the man walking in front of her.

"Oi..."

Rubbing her bruised head she didn't even have to look up to recognize the voice.

"Idiot, you walked right into me!" She accused, stabbing a finger into the upperclassman's chest.

"I think you've got your head on backwards, because from where 'I' am standing, *you* walked into *me*." Mamoru dusted off his high school uniform as though it had somehow been dirtied by the collision. "How many times do I need to tell you to watch where you're going?"

"You're the one who needs to watch it, Mamoru Chiba! Where do you get off, picking on younger girls alone at night." She glared up at him.

"You are hardly a girl, what with that mustache you've got going..."

"How dare you! I'll have you know I am one of the prettiest girls in my class!"

"what the world must be coming to, if *you* are at the top of the gene pool."

"Oh and you're so much better!" She scoffed, giving him a drawn out appraisal. "An arrogant ass with some sort of mental retardation." She paused to make a disgusted face at his olive jacket. "And colorblind to boot."

"I'll have you know this was a gift." He crossed his arms defensively over the garment in question. "You can't even pass your middle school exams, so who are you to lecture me on mental retardation?"

"Someone with enough of a brain to know a jerk when I see one!"

"Real witty," he drawled. "You're just proving my point."

"You..." Usagi scrunched up her face as she searched for another insult. "chauvenistic prick!"

He lowered his arms again with a smug smirk, "I've never had any other women complain."

"ARGH!" Usagi threw her hands up in frustration, only then noticing that the streetlamps were flickering on. "I don't have time for this, I need to get home before 9:00." Ignoring him she brushed by and began walking again.

It took her another few minutes and some budding instincts to notice that he was following her.

Whirling around, she pinned him with a look that would have terrorified a lesser man. "What do you want? Why won't you just leave me alone!"

He shrugged, his face indifferent. "And let you buldoze over some other hapless victim and then scream like a banshee at them? I'd rather keep the streets of Tokyo safe for one night."

"You're the one without enough coordination to sidestep someone half your size." She turned again, dismissing him.

This time it only took her a minute to notice he was still shadowing her. She stopped walking without turning to look at him. "Just go."

"And deprive you of the karmic justice of being tortured by my mere presence? Never." He didn't mention how his chivalrous moral code would not allow him to let a girl younger than him walk home alone at night, especially in a park like this where anything could happen.

Usagi tipped her head, not feeding into his provocation for once. "Mamoru, I said just go. I don't need or want you following me, I can take care of myself."

"Fine," he acquiesed. "I have more important things to focus on anyway. If anything happens to you though, Motoki will never let me forget it, so don't do anything stupider than usual."

He didn't see the telltale smile at his teasing with her back turned toward him. "I promise, nothing stupid."

He nodded even though he knew she wouldn't see it, before turning and heading in the opposite direction.

Satisfied after a few seconds of listening to his footsteps grow fainter, Usagi began walking again.

For the rest of the walk home, the cold air and darkness around her became more obvious. Her solidarity did as well.

As she stepped up to her front door, she missed the black form peeking around from behind the bushes that had trailed her the final stretch of the way.

AN: Thanks for the reviews. If you guys make specific suggestions on what you want to see in later drabbles I'll try to appease them. 


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